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This Entrepreneur Publicly Spanked America’s Most Arrogant VCs... & Lived To Tell The Tale, by John Greathouse

Founder Institute CEO, Adeo Ressi, recently sat down for an interview with Forbes writer, John Greathouse. During their discussion, Adeo offered insight into the premise behind TheFunded.com, and what's in store for the Founder Institute in the year to come.

After launching TheFunded.com in 2007, Adeo Ressi felt compelled to go a step further and not only give entrepreneurs insight to investors, but actually help them launch a company. In 2009, the Founder Institute was born.

"Once The Funded was firmly established and effectively keeping venture capitalists (relatively) in check, Adeo turned his attention toward educating emerging entrepreneurs. To this end, he created The Founder Institute in order to, “globalize Silicon Valley.” In Adeo’s words,"… in 2008 and 2009, we had at that point righted many of the wrongs in the venture capital industry, but that didn’t mean that entrepreneurship was all of a sudden healthy. If you take away the prison guard that beats you, it doesn’t mean that you’re out of prison. It just means that you’re in prison and you’re just not getting beaten as much.

Entrepreneurship Ain’t No Fantasy Camp

Adeo believes that the program benefits all of the participants, even those who do not graduate, as it provides a safe environment for people to determine whether they are entrepreneurs or wantrepreneurs. “Right now, the program is pretty good at separating out the serious founders from the people who are in founder fantasy camp, right. A lot of people come in and they’re like, ‘But I want to start a company, I think it’s going to be the most amazing thing in the world’ and once they try their hand at it a little bit through the program, in a structured environment, they realize ‘Wow, this is a lot harder than I expected. I don’t know if it’s the right move for me.’

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. If we can help you realize that, that’s a win for you, that’s a win for the institute, it’s a win for everyone. I would say that about 2% of the population has many of the core attributes to be a successful entrepreneur and… at any one time a subset of those are thinking of starting a business.

Eventually what I want to be able to say… if you enroll in The Founder Institute and make it through, your chances of success will be as high as humanly possible."

The Founder Institute is the world's largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe build enduring technology companies. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 50 countries, the Founder Institute has helped launch over 1,563 companies in 5 years. The company's mission is to "Globalize Silicon Valley" and build sustainable startup ecosystems that will create one million new jobs worldwide.